An odd collection of albums from some of the era's very best bands. Indeed, all of these groups would release arguably better albums than this collection, but several here were important for cementing their respective legacies. Not a whole lot of omissions this year, as the late 80s were a thin time for music in my opinion, but I'll list them anyway:
NOTE: Naked Raygun - Jettison was released in 1988 and XTC - Skylarking was released in 1986 contrary to the FnB list
# Boogie Down Productions * Criminal Minded (B-Boy)
# Public Enemy * Yo! Bum Rush the Show (Def Jam)
# Big Black * Songs About Fucking (Touch & Go)
# Prince * Sign O' The Times (Paisley Park)
# Einsturzende Neubauten * Fuenf Auf Der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala (Some Bizarre/Thirsty Ear)
# Close Lobsters * Foxheads Stalk This Land (Fire)
# Yo La Tengo * New Wave Hot Dogs (Coyote)
# Celtic Frost * Into The Pandemonium (Noise)
# Tom Waits * Franks Wild Years (Island)
# Scratch Acid * Berserker EP (Touch & Go)
# King Sunny Ade * Let Them Say (Atom Park)
# The Go-Betweens * Tallulah (Beggars Banquet)
# The Triffids * Calenture (Island)
# Various * The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (Shanachie)
# Swans * Children Of God (Caroline)
# That Petrol Emotion * Babble (Polydor)
# Dukes Of Stratosphear * Psionic Sunspot (Virgin)
# Squirrel Bait * Skag Heaven (Homestead)
# Tackhead * Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System (On-U Sound)
# Butthole Surfers * Locust Abortion Technician (Touch & Go)
# The Lilac Time (Mercury)
# Napalm Death * Scum (Earache)
# Anthrax * Among The Living (Megaforce)
# The Gun Club * Mother Juno (Buddha)
# Loop * Heaven's End (Mute)
# Game Theory * Lolita Nation (Enigma)
# Testament * The Legacy (Atlantic)
# Helloween * Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. 1 (RCA)
# King Diamond * Abigail (Roadrunner)
# Original Sins * Big Soul (Bar/None)
# Siouxsie & The Banshees * Through The Looking Glass (Geffen)
# Tragic Mulatto * Locos por el Sexo (Alternative Tentacles)
# Love And Rockets * Earth.Sun.Moon (Beggars)
# Lloyd Cole & the Commotions * Mainstream (Capitol)
# This Kind of Punishment * In The Same Room (Ajax)
# Dead C * DR503 (Feel Good All Over)
# For Against * Echelons (Independent Project)
# The Jesus & Mary Chain * Darklands (Blanco Y Negro)
# Hoodoo Gurus * Blow Your Cool! (Elektra)
# X * See How We Are (Elektra)
# Lime Spiders * The Cave Comes Alive! (Virgin)
# The Blue Aeroplanes * Spitting Out Miracles (Velvel)
# Lucinda Williams (Koch)
# The Flaming Lips * Oh My Gawd!!! (Restless)
# The Young Gods (Wax Trax!)
# Wire * The Ideal Copy (Mute)
# L.L. Cool J. * Bigger and Deffer (Def Jam)
# Loop * The World In Your Eyes (Mute)
# Verlaines * Juvenilia (Flying Nun/Homestead)
# Firehose * If'N' (SST)
# The Cult * Electric (Sire)
# Meat Puppets * Mirage (SST)
# Meat Puppets * Huevos (SST)
# Negativland * Escape From Noise (SST)
# Front 242 * Official Version (Wax Trax!)
# Blind Idiot God (SST)
# Screaming Blue Messiahs * Bikini Red (Elektra)
# All * Allroy Sez... (Cruz)
# Sinead O'Connor * The Lion And The Cobra (Chrysalis)
# Napalm Death * Scum (Earache)
# Henry Rollins * Hot Animal Machine (Texas Hotel)
# The Mighty Lemon Drops * Out Of Hand (Sire)
# Wipers * Follow Blind (Restless)
# Flesh For Lulu * Long Live The New Flesh (Capitol)
# The Pastels * Up For A Bit With the Pastels (Big Time)
# Schooly D. * Saturday Night (Schooly D.)
# Death * Screaming Bloody Gore (Combat)
# Guadalcanal Diary * 2x4 (Elektra)
# Motorhead * Rock 'n' Roll (Castle)
# Kool Moe Dee * How Ya Like Me Now (Rooftop-Jive)
# Salt-N-Pepa * Hot, Cool & Vicious (London)
# The Call * Into The Woods (Elektra)
# Bullet Lavolta (Taang!)
# Ice-T * Rhyme Pays (Sire)
# Voivod * Killing Technology (Noise)
Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Quote:
Guns N' Roses' debut, Appetite for Destruction was a turning point for hard rock in the late '80s -- it was a dirty, dangerous, and mean record in a time when heavy metal meant nothing but a good time. On the surface, Guns N' Roses may appear to celebrate the same things as their peers -- namely, sex, liquor, drugs, and rock & roll -- but there is a nasty edge to their songs, since Axl Rose doesn't see much fun in the urban sprawl of L.A. and its parade of heavy metal thugs, cheap women, booze, and crime...as good as Rose's lyrics and screeching vocals are, they wouldn't be nearly as effective without the twin-guitar interplay of Slash and Izzy Stradlin, who spit out riffs and solos better than any band since the Rolling Stones, and that's what makes Appetite for Destruction the best metal record of the late '80s
R.E.M. - DocumentQuote:
Ironically, Document is a stranger, more varied album than its predecessor, but co-producer Scott Litt -- who would go on to produce every R.E.M. album in the following decade -- is a better conduit for the band than Don Gehman, giving the group a clean sound without sacrificing their enigmatic tendencies. "Finest Worksong," the stream-of-conscious rant "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," and the surprise Top Ten single "The One I Love" all crackle with muscular rhythms and guitar riffs, but the real surprise is how political the mid-tempo jangle pop of "Welcome to the Occupation," "Disturbance at the Heron House," and "King of Birds" is. Where Lifes Rich Pageant sounded a bit like a party record, Document is a fiery statement, and its memorable melodies and riffs are made all the more indelible by its righteous anger. In other words, it's not only a commercial breakthrough, but a creative breakthrough as well, offering evidence of R.E.M.'s growing depth and maturity, and helping usher in the P.C. era in the process.
Prince - Sign 'O' The TimesQuote:
Fearless, eclectic, and defiantly messy, Prince's Sign 'O' the Times falls into the tradition of tremendous, chaotic double albums like The Beatles, Exile on Main St., and London Calling -- albums that are fantastic because of their overreach, their great sprawl. Prince shows nearly all of his cards here, from bare-bones electro-funk and smooth soul to pseudo-psychedelic pop and crunching hard rock, touching on gospel, blues, and folk along the way. This was the first album Prince recorded without the Revolution since 1982's 1999 (the band does appear on the in-concert rave-up, "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night"), and he sounds liberated, diving into territory merely suggested on Around the World in a Day and Parade. While the music overflows with generous spirit, these are among the most cryptic, insular songs he's ever written.
Sonic Youth - SisterQuote:
EVOL was a major leap forward for Sonic Youth, but Sister is a masterpiece, demonstrating the group's rapidly evolving musicality. More than ever before, Sonic Youth's songs sound like actual songs, and their collages of noise, distortion, and alternate tunings are now used to provide texture and depth to the music, which is original, complex, and rewarding. Not only is there the full-throttle roar of "Tuff Gnarl," but there are shimmering layers of ambient harmonics and dissonance that are as haunting and challenging as any of their barrages of feedback. Furthermore, Sister has a warm sound, which lures the listeners into music that's defiantly arty but never indulgent. It's one of the singular art rock records of the '80s, surpassed only by Sonic Youth's next album, Daydream Nation.
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over MeQuote:
A blitzkrieg fusion of hardcore punk, Sonic Youth-style noise freak-outs, heavy metal, and melodic hard rock in the vein of Neil Young, You're Living All Over Me was a turning point in American underground rock & roll. With its thin, unbalanced mix, the album sounds positively menacing and edgy -- Lou Barlow's bass barrels forward over Murph's clanking drums, with J Mascis' guitar twisting pummeling riffs and careening, occasionally atonal solos. It established guitar heroics as a part of indie rock, bringing the noise of Sonic Youth into more conventional song structures. Also, Mascis' laconic, self-absorbed whine was a distinct departure from the furious post-hardcore rants, or the mumbling Michael Stipe imitations, that dominated indie rock. While the songwriting is occasionally uneven, the best moments of You're Living All Over Me -- "Little Fury Things," "Raisans," "In a Jar," and Barlow's proto-Sebadoh "Poledo" -- retain their power, and it's possible to hear the record's influence throughout alternative rock.
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We ComeQuote:
With producer Stephen Street, the Smiths created a subtly shaded and skilled album, one boasting a fuller production than before. Morrissey and Marr also labored hard over the songs, working to expand the Smiths' sound within their very real boundaries. For the most part, they succeed. "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish," "Girlfriend in a Coma," "Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before," and "I Won't Share You" are classics, while "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours," "Death of a Disco Dancer," and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" aren't far behind.
The Replacements - Pleased to Meet MeQuote:
Bob Stinson was kicked out of the Replacements after Tim, allegedly because he was unwilling to make the musical leap forward necessary for Pleased to Meet Me. With Stinson left the band's hardcore roots, leaving behind the conflicting desires of Paul Westerberg's wish to be a serious singer/songwriter and for the group to become either the Faces or Big Star. That conflict is played out throughout Pleased to Meet Me, and it isn't helped by the stultifying clean and detailed production by Jim Dickinson. Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson are reigned in tighter than ever before, giving most of the songs a strangled, distanced feel which isn't helped by Dickinson's canned guitar sounds and the odd production flourishes, including the occasional sax and keyboard. The full-blown production works on the horn- and string-drenched "Can't Hardly Wait," but it makes mindlessly rocking filler like "Shooting Dirty Pool" and "Red Red Wine" irritating. For the most part, Westerberg's songs make the clean sound tolerable, particularly on the Stonesy "I.O.U.," the suicide sketch of "The Ledge," the power pop of "Never Mind" and "Valentine," and the lovely acoustic "Skyway." But the fan love letter "Alex Chilton" reveals more than necessary -- even though Westerberg is shooting for stardom, he has more affinity for the self-styled loser, which means he never wants to make the full leap to the mainstream. And that can only hurt a record like Pleased to Meet Me, which has stardom in its sights.
U2 - The Joshua TreeQuote:
With the uniformly excellent songs -- only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat -- the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal.
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss MeQuote:
Simultaneously more accessible and ambitious than any of the Cure's previous albums, the double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me finds Robert Smith expanding his pop vocabulary by tentatively adding bigger guitars, the occasional horn section, lite-funk rhythms, and string sections. It's eclectic, to be sure, but it's also a mess, bouncing from idea to idea and refusing to develop some of the most intriguing detours. Even if Kiss Me doesn't quite gel, its best moments -- including the deceptively bouncy "Why Can't I Be You?" and the stately "Just Like Heaven" -- are remarkable and help make the album one of the group's very best.
